(Board game) Mr. President: The American Presidency

[MrPotatoTed]

Hey all, as you've likely seen in the other threads, I ordered a super-detailed nerdy one-player Presidential board game back in 2020.  They finally shipping in the past few weeks.

Maddeningly, mine STILL hasn't arrived yet, even though others who bought the game in the past month after seeing me talk about it already received theirs days ago.  Haha.

But thankfully, one of them very kindly sent me photos of some of the booklets I need in order to play the game on the Tabletop Simulator (you can access the game there, but won't be able to really play without those booklets as they contain about a hundred charts for what to do in every situation.  Haha.  Anyway, I won't out my benefactor here in case they don't want 100 more people PMing them for the same screenshots, especially if those folks didn't pay for the game yet (since I want to support the incredible makers of this game).  But I'm very thankful to them, because now I can finally begin the game for real!

I've talked about how the setup works several times before in the other threads and explained a little bit about the setup strategy in choosing your cabinet, etc.  So I'll skip to just showing you the end result of that setup here:

Here we see that our President is business savvy and made of teflon.  This will naturally help with the economy and dodging scandals.  (Note the "-2 die roll modifier" on teflon -- in this game, low die rolls are always better, so subtracting a 2 from a die roll is very helpful).

Below our Presidential attributes, we see key members of our cabinet.  From left to right, we have Vice President Andy Lewis, Chief of Staff Kim Richards, Secretary of State Ellen Price, and Secretary of Defense John Long.  The numbers from left to right are whether they give a -1 on domestic, diplomatic, and war rolls.  The VP can take domestic and diplomatic actions.  The chief of staff is just domestic, the Sec of State is just diplomatic, and the Sec of Defense is just war.  

As you can see, our VP and Sec of State are useless -- they'll be able to take their actions, but they get no boosts or bonuses to anything they can influence.  On the other hand, our Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense are both rockstars.  They get a -1 on their rolls (again, that's good) AND get to take an additional bonus action on their turns.

Finally, we also have "Superstars on the National Security Council," which will give us help in fighting terrorist groups across the globe.

[MrPotatoTed]

Looking at the image above, on the right hand side, we also see legislative priorities.  The ones listed 1-5 are what the public is demanding.  In this case, from most important to least important, they're demanding tax reform, immigration reform, an expansion of NASA funding, a job creation package, and improvements in homeland security.

My campaign promise (chosen randomly, just like those top five priorities) is welfare reform.  I then hand selected my personal top three priorities, which I intentionally matched with the public's top three priorities -- a common strategy, but not the only strategy as each laws gives various boosts.  For example, I could have chosen "expand military" if I wanted to give myself more military units to deploy around the globe.  But for now, we'll keep it simple and try to give the people want them want.

[MrPotatoTed]

A look at congress as we continue to set up our board.  Myers and Taylor are my same-party allies in Congress.  Dukes and Wilson are my opposite-party opponents.

We see that they all have the ability to spin in the media, but Dukes is the best of the four of them and she's my opponent.  Uh-oh.  

The number in the top right corner for each politician is their legislative ability.  In this case, it's a tie as my allies total 3 legislative and so do my enemies.

Finally, we see moderate versus radical.  Because there are more radicals than moderates, the bipartisan tracker moves to between contentious and conciliatory.  While it's there, we can only try to pass a maximum of one legislative proposal per term.  (Max bipartisanship would be 2 bills per turn.  Lowest bipartisanship means nothing gets done at all.)

[MrPotatoTed]

As the final part of our set-up before we get to the actual gameplay, I inherit three crises from the former President.  (It's actually possible to inherit positive events as well, but I didn't.  Ha.)

For the cards below, only pay attention to the top left of each card where it says "C" (meaning when I drew it from the "C"risis deck.  The events have a chance to re-occur, in which case we'll follow the steps on the rest of the cards.

So we've got a major bank failure in the US, China is developing the ability to shoot satellites out of the sky, and a country in Africa becomes unstable, possibly on the verge of a civil war and/or harboring terrorists.  Fun.

Overall, these aren't necessarily horrible.  I need to keep the economy at its current level, and I need to at least keep pace with China at space warfare.  These feel like manageable goals. 

My only real concern is the final card.  At a glance, that could lead to some real instability across the globe, which in turn can greatly increase terrorism.  I need to prioritize brokering peace for any civil wars.  There are currently two:  Syria (middle east) and Somalia (Africa).

[MrPotatoTed]

As my opening move, I'm able to use my "business savvy" skill to remove the "worsening economy" marker, erasing the damage of the bank failure (though it can still reoccur, so I'll need to keep at it's present level or higher.)  The economy (and many other meters) move slowly -- you need two consecutive negative events to actually lower the economy, and two consecutive positive events to increase it.  My skill level just erased one of the negative events, so we're neutral now -- we'll need two in a row in either direction for the economy to actually move, and we're perfectly fine keeping it where it is.  So far, so good.

Next, I need to choose a region to focus my intel collection on.  Naturally, I select the Middle East because it's a big ole' mess.  We've got the Syrian civil war (a priority that we need to address, remember, thanks to the mess the previous President left us in Africa), we've got a rogue state, multiple unstable states, deployed US troops causing a ruckus, more terrorist groups than we can shake a stick at, and just in case that's not enough, an aggressive Russia is poking around the area as well.  

[MrPotatoTed]

Next, thanks to our reasonably strong economy (despite the bank failure, which I've already negated for now), I get to try to improve two of our strategic ability areas.

There are seven areas to choose from, showing US, Russian, and Chinese ability levels for each.  But it's not hard to choose my two priorities:  I need to improve space warfare thanks to the Chinese anti-satellite event, and I need to improve cyber warfare because it's the only area where I'm not at least even with Russia and China.

I fail at improving cyber warfare capabilities, unfortunately -- but I do succeed at improving space warfare!  We're currently tied with China (and better than Russia) on that front -- a huge relief, as that will let us negate China's satellite-attacking event, as long as I at least keep pace with China on this front.

There

[MrPotatoTed]

Next, I get to set my cabinet priorities for the year.  There are six to choose from, and I get to rank them.  The higher the rank, the easier they will be to improve.

I decide my top cabinet priority will be to resolve the domestic crises (I started with an unspecified one, and then the bank collapse created another -- if I rack up too many domestic crises, all kinds of bad stuff can happen.)

My next priority is to improve my cabinet's effectiveness, which isn't great right now.  That will help with a wide variety of potential actions I can take later.  After that, I want to improve my relations with congress, which will of course help with the passage of legislation, such as my campaign promise of welfare reform or the public's top priority of tax reform.  From there, I want to improve homeland security -- we don't have any active terror cells in the US right now, but I'm really nervous about that instability event creating some.  After that, I'll work on PR, and then my lowest priority is improving the economy.

"But Ted!  You fool!  What about the bank failure?  Did you forget you have to at least keep the economy stable, to stave off dire events?  Shouldn't this be one of your top priorities?"

Maybe!  But for now, I'm going to rely on my business savvy trait to keep us afloat here.  It may be a huge mistake!  But that's my thought process, at least.  I can handle the economy, the cabinet can focus elsewhere.  

Finally, the bank event forced us to add a tension marker to our lowest priority.  This means it won't be possible to do a cabinet roll on this priority for this term.  It's not a big deal, I only had a 1:6 chance of improving the economy here anyway, but now it's 0:6.

[MrPotatoTed]

Whoops, I just realized I've been posting this in the AMPU forum.  My apologies.  If any mods want to move it to a more applicable forum, please do so.

It's action time!  My President and key cabinet members get to take actions now.  My Chief of Staff and Secretary of War get two actions as their politician cards indicate.  Sadly, my VP and Sec of State are the only people who can help me broker peace in the two civil wars -- my last remaining urgent priority -- and they're both useless.

I'm going to focus efforts on trying to broker peace in the Somalian civil war first.  My issue here is that stability in Africa is so low that it would hamper my efforts (a penalty on my die roll).  So first, I want to increase stability in Africa.  *reviews options*  Oh...I think it's literally impossible to do that.  Cool, cool, cool cool cool.

Okay.  I guess we're just Leroy Jenkinsing this thing then.

I'll start with our useless Secretary of State Ellen Price.  Due to Africa's instability, there's a +1 on the roll -- but I'll spend one of my action points to give us a -1, balancing it out.  Secretary Price has a 40% chance of brokering peace, a 30% chance of doing nothing, and a 30% chance of making it worse.  What could possibly go wrong? 

Rolled a 10.  The worst possible outcome.  Oh, goody.  

Regional crisis level goes up by one, reaching maximum "Major Regional Crisis" level.  My approval rating drops from 40% to 36%.  African stability falls to the lowest level, and the region is now trending towards anti-American alignment.  Immigrants flock to the Eurozone, causing an instability crisis.  The crisis level for the Eurozone goes up two levels, and the European economy is now trending downward.  

For fuck's SAKE, Secretary Price...

[MrPotatoTed]

Well...the good news is that maybe we can't possibly make it any worse?

I deploy my useless Vice President Lewis to see if he can figure out how to bring the two sides together in Somalia and negotiate the release of Secretary Price (kidding).  SUCCESS!

Vice President Lewis manages to negotiate a ceasefire in Somalia!  Regional crisis level decreases by one and UN peacekeepers are deployed to help maintain the ceasefire.  Wow.  Alright!  That just leaves the civil war in Syria to deal with.  Should be super easy.  Barely an inconvenience.  ;c)

[MrPotatoTed]

The only remaining member of my team that can influence a civil war is...well...me.

President Me decides to straighten out this whole Syrian civil war business.  Rolled a 10.  Worst possible outcome.

For fuck's sake.  Regional crisis level goes up by one in the Middle East, creating yet another Major Crisis.  My approval rating drops to 32%.  

A new terror group pops up in the Middle East, and China begins involving itself in the region as well.  Refugees continue to flock to the Eurozone, causing further regional crisis. We're on the verge of a full blown crisis in the Eurozone, thanks to my administration's meddling in Africa and the Middle East.  Whoopserdoozle.

[MrPotatoTed]

Our Chief of Staff, Kim Richards, is amazing but can only influence diplomatic actions.  She'll successfully improve our relationship with Congress, which is now collegial.

For her bonus action, she'll attempt to fix a domestic crisis (the banking situation).  This was a difficult roll...but success!  We remove a domestic crisis (a huge relief as we were on the verge of a huge crisis in the US) and improve our approval rating to 34%.  

See?  I told you she was amazing.

[MrPotatoTed]

Finally, we have our rockstar of a Secretary of Defense, John Long.

Secretary Long will use military professionals to treat disease, build schools and clinics, and build other infrastructure in a war-torn region (Afghanistan, part of the Central South Asia region).  SUCCESS!  Regional crisis level falls by one, and the region stops trending towards anti-US sentiment.  

For his bonus action...he'll do it again.  Success again!  There is now a zero level of regional crisis in the South Asia region.

Hmm.

You know...looking back...

I wonder if we should have done something about any of the five terror cells in the Middle East?

Eh.

Should be fine...  ;c)

I have to take off for a few hours, but when I return, we'll see what kind of nonsense Russia can stir up!

[MrPotatoTed]

Russia Acts!

Russia successfully improves their strategic recon/intel gathering and strategic missile/missile defense capabilities.  The missile improvement is particularly troubling, as they now lead the world in it.

Russia then conducts espionage, stealing our own missile technology to improve their strategic/missile defense capabilities AGAIN.  They now have double the level that we have on this field.  Fuuuuck.  They also steal our military plans and apparently leak them to the Taliban, because the Taliban's strength against us in our war increases by two.  Double fuuuuuck.

They begin improving the Russian economy.

They successfully launch a "limited clandestine Spetsnaz-led decapitation operation" aimed at overthrowing the leadership of the rogue state in the Central/South Asia region.  Success!  The rogue state is removed from the board, and replaced by a level-4 (max) terror cell instead.  ...yay?

(Russian acts will continue in an hour or two, gotta step out for a bit.)

[Willthescout7]

I’ve gone ahead and even though I shouldn’t have…I ordered the game. Looking forward to it getting here 

[MrPotatoTed]

13 minutes ago, Willthescout7 said:

I’ve gone ahead and even though I shouldn’t have…I ordered the game. Looking forward to it getting here 

I’m going to be furious if yours comes before mine. Hahaha.

[MrPotatoTed]

Russia Acts, continued

Russia launches a cyber attack intended to discredit President Me, and succeeds.  It burns one of my action points and drops my approval rating to 32%.

Russia launches a cyber attacked intended to target Eastern European Democracies, and succeeds.  Gains 1 influence in Eastern Europe.

Russia tries to build up influence in the Eurozone, but fails.

Russia reaches a compromise with the west, in exchange for lifting the mulitlateral sanctions against the nation.  They remove 1 influence from Eastern Europe (phew -- we were getting dangerously close to Russia being able to build a base there, which is a step towards Russia auto-winning the game.)

Russia engages in deep sea mining in the arctic and finds riches.  Economy improves, ending Russian economic stagnation.

Russia vetoes sanctions against North Korea.

[MrPotatoTed]

I will try to have Secretary of State Ellen Price broker peace in the Syrian civil war.  Success!  Syria signs a cease fire with the rebels.  UN peacekeepers are deployed to keep the ceasefire in place.  Regional crisis level decreases by one in the Middle East!

There are no active civil wars anymore, so I'm feeling better about the three crises I inherited from my predecessor.  I'll spend my two remaining actions by deploying my superstars to problem areas.  Chief of Staff Kim Richards will try to improve bipartisanship in Congress.  Success!  Bipartisanship improves.

Secretary of War John Long will try to start gathering more info on two terror cells in the Middle East.  One dodges him, but he successfully starts gathering data on the other.

[10centjimmy]

1 hour ago, Willthescout7 said:

I’ve gone ahead and even though I shouldn’t have…I ordered the game. Looking forward to it getting here 

Same. Damn it, Ted

[MrPotatoTed]

EVENT:  China Deploys troops to Indian Border.  Uh-oh.  Tensions dramatically rise in the region as India and China inch towards possible war, with China currently the projected winner.

EVENT:  China invests heavily in the Middle East.  On the one hand, this is great!  Regional stability improves for the Middle East, which is something the US didn't have the ability to do on its own.  And the regional crisis level amazingly drops to zero!

On the other hand, China gets two more influence in Middle East.  They now have three...could China end up building a base in the Middle East?  This feels ominous...



CASCADING EVENT, CHAPTER TWO

Remember how the previous President let China advance in the fine art of shooting satellites down?

Well, not on President Me's watch!

This event pops up again...but thankfully, I've successfully managed to match China's space warfare abilities, so nothing happens.

Of course, we'll need to stay on top of it...it could always pop up again!



CASCADING EVENT, CHAPTER TWO AGAIN

The bank failure pops up again -- but thankfully, we stayed on top of keeping the economy afloat.  In fact, we've done so well that the banking crisis is officially behind us!  No impact, and I get to discard the card, ensuring it won't come up again.  PHEW.

 

 

[MrPotatoTed]

That's as far as I can go for now, with the rules that I currently have on hand.  @Umbrella or @Ich_bin_Tyler if you're able to PM me the Rogues & Allies information, and maybe the legislative session too, I'd greatly appreciate it!  Still no word on when my game will actually arrive.  It was supposed to be here Thursday, but UPS tracker just says they'll let me know when they know. Ha.

[vcczar]

13 hours ago, MrPotatoTed said:

Hey all, as you've likely seen in the other threads, I ordered a super-detailed nerdy one-player Presidential board game back in 2020.  They finally shipping in the past few weeks.

Maddeningly, mine STILL hasn't arrived yet, even though others who bought the game in the past month after seeing me talk about it already received theirs days ago.  Haha.

But thankfully, one of them very kindly sent me photos of some of the booklets I need in order to play the game on the Tabletop Simulator (you can access the game there, but won't be able to really play without those booklets as they contain about a hundred charts for what to do in every situation.  Haha.  Anyway, I won't out my benefactor here in case they don't want 100 more people PMing them for the same screenshots, especially if those folks didn't pay for the game yet (since I want to support the incredible makers of this game).  But I'm very thankful to them, because now I can finally begin the game for real!

I've talked about how the setup works several times before in the other threads and explained a little bit about the setup strategy in choosing your cabinet, etc.  So I'll skip to just showing you the end result of that setup here:

Here we see that our President is business savvy and made of teflon.  This will naturally help with the economy and dodging scandals.  (Note the "-2 die roll modifier" on teflon -- in this game, low die rolls are always better, so subtracting a 2 from a die roll is very helpful).

Below our Presidential attributes, we see key members of our cabinet.  From left to right, we have Vice President Andy Lewis, Chief of Staff Kim Richards, Secretary of State Ellen Price, and Secretary of Defense John Long.  The numbers from left to right are whether they give a -1 on domestic, diplomatic, and war rolls.  The VP can take domestic and diplomatic actions.  The chief of staff is just domestic, the Sec of State is just diplomatic, and the Sec of Defense is just war.  

As you can see, our VP and Sec of State are useless -- they'll be able to take their actions, but they get no boosts or bonuses to anything they can influence.  On the other hand, our Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense are both rockstars.  They get a -1 on their rolls (again, that's good) AND get to take an additional bonus action on their turns.

Finally, we also have "Superstars on the National Security Council," which will give us help in fighting terrorist groups across the globe.

It would be fun replacing those fictional people with real people. Use cardboard or poster board or something. 

[MrPotatoTed]

My game STILL hasn’t arrived, and I have two days off from work or school.  Argh. Haha.

I’ll try tagging @Umbrella and @Ich_bin_Tyler one last time since I know they haven’t been on since last week.  If you guys get this notification, I’d greatly appreciate your assistance.  
 

Thanks!

[10centjimmy]

1 hour ago, MrPotatoTed said:

Thanks

Is there a reddit on the game yet, or maybe on GMT in general?

[MrPotatoTed]

39 minutes ago, 10centjimmy said:

Is there a reddit on the game yet, or maybe on GMT in general?

I found one that's run by fans, but its rarely used and they don't even mention the president game.  There is an active community on boardgame geek, but people don't share the files there because most of those who ask never paid for the game and we all want to make sure the creators get paid since it's such a fun game.

[10centjimmy]

1 hour ago, MrPotatoTed said:

I found one that's run by fans, but its rarely used and they don't even mention the president game.  There is an active community on boardgame geek, but people don't share the files there because most of those who ask never paid for the game and we all want to make sure the creators get paid since it's such a fun game.

Also I saw on the website that they have a online chat, I assume you've reached out to GMT directly?